Heavy metals content as a criterion for assessment of potato tubers

Abstract

The environmental study was aimed at assessment of potato tuber quality based on the content of heavy metals (lead, cadmium, nickel, zinc, copper, arsenic, mercury) and finding a correlation between these heavy metals and some properties of soil and plant. Metals in soil and tubers were determined with ASA method, other soil properties were  also determined: granulometric composition with Prószy ski aerometric method, pH in 1 mol KCl dm^-3, humus with Tiurin method, P and K available according to Egner-Riehm, Mg available according to Schachtschabel, S with nephelemetric method. The results of the analyses were statistically assessed with analysis of variance, simple dassification with the use of Tuckey^,s confidence halfinterval, correlation coefficient, multiple correlation coefficient, coefficient of determination and regression equation were computed. The content of these trace elements in potato tubers was not significantly dependent on the region of cultivation. Properties of the soil and the plant did not decide, in most cases, about the contents. The mean content of heavy metals in potato tubers (0.042 mg Pb, 0.042 mg Cd, 0.176 mg Ni, 3.378 mg Zn, 0.793 mg Cu, 0.002 mg As, 0.00012 mg Hg kg^-1 of fresh matter) indicates that it did not exceed the upper threshold typical of products of this type.